My babies officially became seventh graders today.   When I taught 8th graders, they quickly trained me to never say anything that could even remotely be construed as inappropriate. They can hear sexual innuendo in any sentence and see it in anything you might draw. They can fit a good “that’s what she said” into…

I have never seen a reading teacher be required to sit through a mathematics professional development, because that would just be silly. I’ve never seen a social studies teacher sent to a math PD, even though they could learn how to teach the concepts of proportions and scales in their maps units, or how timelines…

After weeks spent in my math enrichment class trying to build conceptual understanding for why you need a common denominator when adding and subtracting fractions, I had the kids write letters to someone important to them explaining the idea. Unfortunately, I don’t think all my students quite got it…   Dear Mom, You have to…

Remember this kid? He was constantly calling out in class, trying to get attention, and I finally came down really hard on him. I put him on a really tight leash in my classroom (two call-outs = detention, no matter if the entire rest of the class is calling out nonstop. You’ve already irritated me,…

1) I will devote time every week to teach my kids how to problem-solve. I will explicitly teach them and spend time letting them practice, work together, and present solutions to the types of problems that make even my really advanced kids think. I will not slide into the complacency of working in a district…

I had a student on a behavior contract, but we were having trouble thinking of a reward for perfect completion of the contract. Did she want me to bring her lunch? Special class seating? A Saturday activity somewhere? Homework passes? She kept insisting she wasn’t sure, but she was excited about the contract anyway.  …

I don’t know when this site became such a hotbed for charter hate, but I’m getting irritated enough at general ignorance that I’m going to have to write some things I’ll probably regret later. If you’ve been reading my blog long enough, you’ll remember the days when I was a bona-fide Charter Hater. You’ll remember…